Antiperspirant salts, such as aluminum chlorohydrex (also called aluminum chlorohydrex polymeric salts and abbreviated here as “ACH”) and aluminum zirconium glycine salts (abbreviated here as “ZAG”, “ZAG complexes” or “AZG”), are known to contain a variety of polymeric and oligomeric species with molecular weights (MW) of 100-500,000. It has been clinically shown that, in general, the smaller the species, the higher the efficacy for reducing sweat.
In an attempt to increase the quality and quantity of smaller aluminum and/or zirconium species, a number of efforts have focused on: (1) how to select the components of ACH and ZAG that affect the performance of these materials as antiperspirants; and (2) how to manipulate these components to obtain and/or maintain the presence of smaller types of these components. These attempts have included the development of analytical techniques to identify the components. Size exclusion chromatography (“SEC”) or gel permeation chromatography (“GPC”) are methods frequently used for obtaining information on polymer distribution in antiperspirant salt solutions. With appropriate chromatographic columns, generally five distinctive groups of polymer species can be detected in commercial ACH and ZAG complexes appearing in a chromatogram as peaks 1, 2, 3, 4 and a peak known as “5, 6”. Peak 1 is the larger Zr species (greater than 60 Angstroms). Peaks 2 and 3 are larger aluminum species. Peak 4 is smaller aluminum species (aluminum oligomers, or small aluminum cluster) and has been correlated with enhanced efficacy for both Al and Al/Zr salts. Peak 5, 6 is the smallest aluminum species. Various analytical approaches for characterizing the peaks of ACH and various types of ZAG actives are found in “Antiperspirant Actives—Enhanced Efficacy Aluminum-Zirconium-Glycine (AZG) Salts” by Dr. Allan H. Rosenberg (Cosmetics and Toiletries Worldwide, Fondots, D. C. ed., Hartfordshire, UK: Aston Publishing Group, 1993, pages 252, 254-256).
Attempts to activate antiperspirant salts to produce materials having improved efficacy have included developing processes for obtaining composition having large amounts of Peak 4 species. None of these efforts, however, have resulted in an antiperspirant composition having a composition with little or no Peak 3 and optionally little or no Peak 5.